JOHN SHORTLAND (Junior) (1769 - 1810) - From Second
Mate to Commander
John Shortland, Junior,
the elder son of
Lt John Shortland RN,
according to the Naval Chronicle,
was born on the 5 September 17691,
however this is at variance with the parish baptism
records of St. Mary, Portsea, Hampshire. His career
in the Royal Navy began in 1781 when, at the age of
12 he took his first voyage to Quebec with his
father who was employed as Agent for Transports
providing services between England and North
America.
After serving in the West Indies under various
commands in early 1787,
he returned to England during the time the First
Fleet was being fitted out for its expedition to New
South Wales. At his father’s solicitation as Agent
for Transports to the First Fleet, John was
appointed as 2nd
Mate on the Friendship during May
1787
then to the HMS Sirius as an able seaman on
the 1 September
1787under
the watchful eye of Captain John Hunter.
Following the First Fleet settlement at Port Jackson
in 1788,
the Sirius sailed east in October
1788,
bound for Cape Town to procure much needed food and
necessary provisions,
and returned on 8 May 1789 having completely
circumnavigated the globe. However, by the end of
1789,
provisions in the colony were still seriously low
due to a failure of expected shipping arrivals,
and Governor Phillip deemed it necessary to
send convicts to Norfolk Island,
which to date was thought to have sufficient
resources to sustain them. The Sirius took a
company of marines and 180 convicts,
while the Supply took another company of
marines and 20 convicts,
all under the command of Captain Hunter aboard the
Sirius.
During his journey to Norfolk Island, Shortland was
appointed as Master’s Mate aboard the Sirius
when it was unfortunately wrecked in Slaughter Bay,
Norfolk Island,
on 9 March of 1790.
He was
stranded on the Island with the remainder of the
crew and other non-commissioned officers as retained
by Captain Hunter. Final relief came on 11 February
1791 with the arrival of the Supply providing
all with a return to Sydney after which arrangements
were able to be made by Captain Hunter for their
return to Portsmouth in the Dutch snow
Waaksamheyd on 27 March 1791.
Shortland obtained his first commission as
Lieutenant on 15 October 1793 while serving aboard
the HMS Arrogant, where he remained
for the next two years.
In 1795 Captain Hunter now appointed as the Second
Governor of New South Wales selected his crew for
the HMS Reliance for their voyage to Sydney.
The men chosen included Captain Henry Waterhouse
as Second Captain, John Shortland jnr. as First
Lieutenant, Surgeon George Bass, Masters Mate
Matthew Flinders, Daniel Payne the first boat
builder in the colony and the return of Bennelong
the
Aboriginal
chief who had accompanied Governor Arthur Phillip to
England.
It is interesting to note that Henry Waterhouse and
Lt John Shortland jnr. brought the first merino
sheep to NSW from the Cape of Good Hope some of
which were sold to John Macarthur, founder of
the Australian Wool Industry. An account of
Shortland’s experiences on his journey to and after
arrival in New South Wales is
contained
in a letter he wrote to Thomas Townshend, 1st
Viscount Sydney, dated 26 October 1797
4.
Also of note
are
the explorations and activities in the colony of
George Bass and Matthew Flinders.
On 5 September 1797 the colonial-built vessel
Cumberland, engaged in
the transport of supplies between the Hawkesbury and
Sydney,
was seized by a party of convicts. The loss of the
‘largest and best boat’ in the colony precipitated
the despatch by Governor Hunter of two-armed whale
boats in pursuit. One went south and returned in
three days and the other went north to Port Stephens
with Shortland.
In his journey north Shortland had no luck sighting
the escapees but, on the 9 or 10 September
1797
he discovered, explored and named the Hunter River
after Governor Hunter. He also made the first chart
of the Newcastle-Hunter River estuary, its surrounds
and collected samples of coal. A detailed account of
Shortland’s voyage of discovery and its importance
is included under ‘The Shortland Family of the
Royal Navy and Australasia with Particular Reference
to the First Fleet’2
and Founders
3
Shortland continued with his duties in New South
Wales aboard the Reliance which would have
allowed him further exploration duties in the
colony. But at Hunter’s request he was called to
officiate in the Sydney Criminal Court of Tribunals.
Over the next five years he sat on a total of
thirteen hearings up until his departure from Sydney
in June 1800.
On his return to England, he was
promoted to the rank of Master and Commander,
and served aboard the HMS Pandour.
For his efforts and extra duties undertaken for the
colony, Shortland received a government grant of 380
acres at Bankstown. The Shortland land lay unused
for the next 80 years after John’s early death, the
descendants being unaware of the grant and its value2.
About 1887 ownership of the land passed on to Dr
Edward Shortland, a nephew,
who negotiated the sale of portions of the land over
time. Along one edge was built Liverpool Road;
Prospect Creek had been spanned by the Landsdown
bridge and the right of way through the property
become Henry Lawson Drive.
For his next assignment as
Agent of the Troops, Shortland went to Egypt
aboard the Pandour and while off Alexandria
displayed an adventurous character by flying a kite
over Pompey’s Pillar, hauling a rope over it and
climbing 49 metres to the top to drink to the king’s
health. A few days later he repeated the feat, fixed
a weathervane to the top of the obelisk and
proceeded to eat a beefsteak there.
After numerous assignments and now at the age of 41,
with Britain and France at war John was given
command of the French frigate Junon, which he
outfitted at his own expense. On a cruise to the
West Indies with half his crew, intelligence was
received from an American schooner that a French
ship of 20 guns was bound for Guadeloupe, the
information of which tempted him to capture it.
However, when off the coast of Martinique Junon
encountered four French frigates under the
disguise of a Spanish squadron. The story of his
December 1809 battle at Guadeloupe against
overwhelming odds took first rank in British naval
history and was vividly recorded in the Naval
Chronicle of the day1.
He was mortally wounded,
died of his injuries six weeks later, on 31 January
1810, and was buried at Guadeloupe cemetery,
receiving a parole d’honneur in which his
body was interred with full military honours.
John’s favourite dog
Pandour was aboard the Junon and by his
master’s side during the engagement. When John was
wounded Pandour licked his master’s wounds to
comfort him, and after his death the dog was taken
back to England by John’s servant. It was stolen in
a London pub, but later recognised in Nova Scotia by
a crew member of the Junon, and returned to
John’s mother Margaret Shortland at her
College Street home in Westminster.
John’s character, as described in the Naval
Chronicle1,
was summed up as ‘having undaunted courage, ardent
zeal and steady perseverance. He was a dutiful son,
an affectionate brother, a good master and a friend
to mankind’.
There have been several
commemorations to Lieutenant John Shortland jnr.
since his discovery of Newcastle. In 1897 during the
centenary of Newcastle, a Shortland Memorial
Fountain was placed in his honour on the ocean front
of Newcastle Beach and in 1926 a memorial stone was
placed on the Longworth Building in Scott Street
Newcastle in honour of John’s landing.
The fountain however, being
subjected to the ravages of an unforgiving sea spray
was then moved to a small park in Reids Lane and
later to Christie Place Newcastle adjacent to City
Hall. On 2 November 1997 during the Newcastle
Bicentenary a memorial service was organised by the
Fellowship of First Fleeters who organised the
placement of a plaque on the fountain.
Today the name of Shortland
also appears in many places in Newcastle as
Shortland Wetlands, Shortland Esplanade by the
beach, the federal electorate of Shortland, as a
suburb of Newcastle and in Sydney as Shortland Brush
in the Landsdown Estate of Bankstown.
On the question of progeny,
it was found under the Muster Records of the
Reliance after her arrival at Port Jackson
during 1795, a John Thomas Shortland born in
the colony being received aboard at an early age and
enlisted as volunteer crew. John Thomas Shortland
went on to become a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy
aboard the HMS Tigris and while serving in
the West Indies he contracted yellow fever and died
on 15 October 1816 at Antigua. From probate records
he proved to be the son of John Shortland jnr.
While in the colony, John
Shortland was assigned a housekeeper, Catherine
Farrell. His naval colleague William Kent
was also assigned a housekeeper, Catherine
or Elizabeth Powell, with whom it is thought
John fathered a daughter Margaret Shortland
in 1799. Margaret subsequently married James
Boyce, a convicted felon, while in Hobart during
1818, from which union stemmed a long line of Boyce
family members.
#6292 John W Shortland
References
1. Naval Chronicle
1810, Vol. 24, p1-21.
2. J.W. Shortland, ‘The Shortland Family of the
Royal Navy and Australasia with Particular Reference
to the First Fleet’. Copies in three libraries:
State Library of New South Wales, Australian
National Library, First Fleet House Library.
3. Founders 42.6 Fellowship of First
Fleeters, pp6-8
4.
Mitchell Library, ML
Nov 1784 –September 1799. DI. MS
Q522 Items, CY Reel 3693.
